After mapping out the most recent string of attacks, one thing became clear to Lenny – the creature never strayed far from Dean’s Blue Hole. As Lenny predicted, it appeared that the animal was traveling through the system of underwater caves, emerging to hunt and feed. The scent of blood in the main chamber of the cave system would hopefully ring like an aquatic dinner bell, calling the creature back and drawing it closer to Lenny.
Prior to the arrival of the tourists, Lenny considered sending a few interns down as bait, but that would undoubtedly attract attention from their families. The tourists on the other hand? Well, they had been warned to stay out of the water by local law enforcement. Whatever tragic events transpired leading up to their disappearance would just be another accident.
Several interns were working along the beach. The water splashed and they began screaming. Cal was running towards the beach before Lenny even considered that he might need to investigate what caused the disturbance.
One of the soldiers emerged from the water. He stumbled onto the beach, fell to his knees and pitched forward into the sand. Cal and the interns hovered over the man.
“Give him room,” Lenny snapped. “He is just feeling the after effects of the liquid oxygen. Get back.”
The sand beneath the soldier began to darken, turning from a brilliant white to a tarry black. The interns slowly backed away. Cal knelt next to the soldier and checked his pulse.
“It’s weak,” Cal reported, “but he’s still got a pulse.” He looked to the interns. “Put pressure on the wound and get him to the medical tent.”
The interns jumped to follow orders. Once they were out of earshot, Cal turned to Lenny, his eyes narrow and teeth bared. “Tell me what is going on, Doc. Tell me right now.”
“A most unfortunate diving accident,” Lenny waved away Cal’s demand. “Nothing more.”
“My ass,” Cal said. “That was a knife wound. Why was he in the water? Who else was in there?”
“None of your concern.” Lenny turned to walk away, but Cal gripped his shoulder and spun him around.
“Tell me you didn’t send them in there after the tourists,” Cal growled. “Lenny, please tell me you’re not trying to bait the monster.”
“How could you ask me such a thing?” Lenny asked, though his words held no injury or offense. He simply did not know how else to respond.
“Because I’ve worked with you long enough to know how your mind works,” Cal answered.
“Then you also know how dangerous it is to ask questions of that sort.” Lenny shook Cal’s hand from his shoulder and walked towards the medical tent.
-34-
The creature was something out of a dinosaur-obsessed child’s nightmare. It was built for one purpose – to hunt. This thing was a clear apex predator, no matter what century it found itself swimming through.
Tyde blew into his respiratory, trying to force an eruption of bubbles to capture the creature’s attention. The liquid oxygen backed up, flooding the respirator and causing him to gag. A thin tendril of silvery liquid twisted away. He had forgotten that he wore the strange diving gear.
Swallow, just like drinking water and exhale through my nose. Tyde repeated this mantra in his head as he followed the direction. A stream of mercurial bubbles burst from Tyde’s respirator. He swallowed again and forced another string of bubbles.
Effortlessly, the monster twisted its body and glided towards Tyde. It showed no emotion, no excitement. It was simply doing what it had been designed to do.
Sure that he had captured the monster’s attention, Tyde turned and kicked for a nearby pile of rocks. A narrow path led between the cave walls and rocks. Tyde turned sideways and forced himself into the small area. His air tank scraped and clanked as it grated against the rocky walls.
Tyde watched the creature swim closer. Its broad flippers pulled its sleek body through the water, closer to Tyde. As the monster glided past the rocks, it nudged them with its massive snout. The rocks shifted and Tyde worried that they would tumble backwards and pin him against the wall.
Something beeped. It was a tinny mechanical alarm that sounded distorted and strange as it moved through the water. Tyde turned towards the sound, but could not find the source. It beeped again.
A small red light blinked on the left shoulder strap of Tyde’s dive gear. There was less than ten minutes worth of oxygen left in his tanks. The alarm was going to draw the creature’s attention more than bubbles and Tyde had no idea how to silence it. If he swam out from behind the rocks, he was dead.
The monster swung back towards the Tyde, this time striking the rocks with more force. The rocks shifted towards Tyde. He instinctively pushed back, but the rocks simply shifted another direction and continued moving. As the rocks pulsed upwards, Tyde’s hands recoiled as if the rocks were blistering.
A long, spindly length of stone rose up from the sand. More followed as the pile of rocks lifted itself from the ground, uncurling from around itself. Two massive claws lifted out of the sand, flexing and snapping. A pair of beady black eyes protruded from the top of what Tyde had assumed to be rocks on long flexible appendages. A gigantic crab-like creature stood over Tyde.
The crab scuttled forward to meet the creature, its claws defensively outstretched and snapping. The dinosaur circled around the crab, trying to find an angle of attack.
Tyde watched in stunned amazement as the two monsters battled a few hundred feet away. The water swirled with debris stirred up by their frenzied attacks. The crab’s claws snapped around one of the monster’s front flippers and wrenched the creature sideways. The dinosaur did not allow the attack to go unanswered. Its powerful jaws, lined with wickedly pointed teeth, snapped around the crab’s free claw. A deafening crunch echoed through the water and the crab’s claw fell to the ground, still flexing, shell crushed.
As the crab scuttled across the floor of the cavern, Tyde’s air gauge again sounded its alarm. He had less than 5 minutes of oxygen left. Tyde kicked and swam toward the narrow cave he had sent Wendy and Jefferson into, hoping that the monsters would remain locked in combat and miss his movements.
Wendy waited in the tunnel, cradling Jefferson and holding the respirator in his mouth. Tyde didn’t see any bubbles from Jefferson and worried it was too late, but he knew there was no way Wendy was going to leave him.
Tyde waved for Wendy to follow him. She cautiously swam out into the main chamber of Dean’s. Her attention was immediately drawn to the two monster’s battling nearby. The crab had been flipped onto its back, its spindly legs uselessly clutching the water. Tyde grabbed Wendy’s shoulder strap and tugged.
The mouth of Dean’s felt as if it moved further away with each kick, but Tyde urged Wendy to keep swimming. Jefferson’s head hung, the respirator still in place. A few bubbles trickled out, but Tyde couldn’t tell if they were from respiration or not.
A sound like thunder splitting a tree shook the cavern. Tyde looked back. It was dark and hard to make out the details, but he could see two large shadowy halves that were once one large crabby whole. The other monster snapped one half from the floor of the cave, gnashing its pointed teeth and scattering fragments of the crab’s shell across the sand. It plucked the second piece from the sea floor and turned towards the mouth of the cave.
Tyde’s heart slammed in his chest, its hammering filling his ears. Somewhere underneath the sound a frantic alarm wailed. Tyde glanced at his shoulder. He was out of air.
-35-
Cal stood on the beach and stared out across the calm water of Dean’s Blue Hole. It was beautiful, tranquil. It was the exact opposite of the feelings that swirled in him.
Working with Doctor Lenny Borges was never easy and it certainly was never really fun, but Cal had stayed for other reasons, found himself driven by the same motivations that gripped Lenny. Cal wanted to discover something new. He needed to believe that there were still mysteries to be solved in this world, that science still had a purpose. But was he willing to make the same
sacrifices as Lenny? Cal hoped not, hoped that he was unable to do the mental and moral gymnastics that allowed Lenny to justify using those tourists as bait.
Bubbles popped in the middle of the cove that surrounded Dean’s. Cal watched them, expecting to see another one of Lenny’s soldiers emerge from the water.
A woman, her hair dark and pasted to the sides of her head, broke the surface. She lay back in the water and cradled a man. Cal recognized him as the tour guide. The second tourist had yet to break the surface. Cal hoped this would soon change. He could not reconcile Lenny’s decisions and was not going to support them. He may not be able to stop Lenny or challenge him, but that did not mean he had to blindly skip along as Lenny sold bits of his humanity in the name of science.
Cal waved his arms, trying to get the woman’s attention. She turned towards him, but hesitated to swim any closer. Cal held a finger to his lips and waved for her to come closer. If Lenny or the remaining soldier wandered onto the beach, these people were screwed. There was no way Lenny was going to allow this people to escape with the knowledge that he had tried to harm them.
The second tourist burst from beneath the water. It looked like he was wearing one of the experimental diving rigs.
“Swim,” he coughed and belched a stream of silvery liquid.
The water beneath the three divers darkened. Cal could hear their panicked breaths as they kicked towards the shore.
“Quiet,” Cal hissed and motioned with his hands. “You need to be quiet.”
“Fuck quiet,” the man gasped as he stood up in knee-deep water and helped the woman lift the injured man. “We don’t need to be quiet, we need to get out of the water. Help us.” He threw up another stream of the liquid oxygen. It hung from his chin like icicles and glistened on his chest.
Cal waded into the water to help the three divers. The man they supported looked to be unconscious and had wounds similar to those of the soldier. Cal shuddered when he thought about what must have transpired down there. His guts twisted and acid burned the back of his throat as he thought about the role he had unwittingly played in all of this.
A wave rose in the middle of the cove and surged forward. Cal had never seen anything like it. He stood in the water, frozen and pointed at the incoming wall of water.
“What? Help us,” the man demanded. He turned to see the wall of water part and the scaly face of a monster emerge. “Go! Wendy, go!” He tugged and pulled on the woman’s arm. She tried to rush forward, but the water pulled at her legs and she tripped. The man she carried fell motionlessly in the water.
“Grab him,” she cried. “Tyde, grab him!” The man lunged, trying to grab the arms of the man who floated in the water. He managed to grip one hand.
The body of the floating man jerked back, disappearing beneath the water. The tourist tugged and pulled. Something snapped and he tumbled into the shallow water.
The tourist sat in waist-deep water. Large chunks of meat bobbed in red, foamy swells. An arm, a ragged portion of torso and a head floated nearby. A long, coil of intestine unspooled from within the ruined chest cavity and trailed behind the shredded torso calling to mind images of a hellish kite.
“Come on,” the woman sobbed as she pulled the man to his feet. Both were coated with a revolting slick of gore. Strips of tattered meat clung to their exposed flesh like seaweed.
The man allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. A stream of vomit gushed from his mouth and splashed into the water. It could have been from the liquid oxygen, but just as easily could have resulted from the sickening stew that surrounded him.
Cal waded out a little further, hesitant to go too deep, but unwilling to not help. The monster circled back and snapped up the remaining bits of meat that bobbed in the water. Cal grabbed the tourists and yanked them onto the sand. They collapsed, exhausted and gasping. Sand clung to the blood and water that coated their skin.
“Get up,” Cal said in a hushed tone. “You’ve got to move. You can’t say here.”
“We’re out of the water,” the man panted.
“But you’re still not safe,” Cal said. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Lenny and the remaining soldier heading towards the beach. “Get up! Get up, right now!” Cal pulled the tourists towards a nearby tangle of scraggly beach brush. It was far from the perfect hiding place, but it would have to do. Cal pushed the two tourists into the bush and held a finger to his lips. “Don’t move. Stay quiet.” The tourists nodded.
Cal moved across the beach, kicking sand to cover the tracks of the tourists. He moved his foot, obscuring the last set of footprints just as Lenny and the remaining soldier crested the small rise leading down to the beach.
Cal ignored the approaching men and looked towards the water. Small ripples and waves undulated across the glass surface. Dark clouds wound black tendrils through the water, slowly dispersing the life source of a man Cal had just seen consumed by his mentor’s obsession.
-36-
Two unmarked black cars blocked the road leading down towards Dean’s Blue Hole. Four men stood in front of the cars. They held no weapons, but oozed violence.
“Who the hell is that?” Milo asked.
“No idea,” Stan answered as he slowed his car to a stop. They idled about three hundred feet away from the unknown men and black vehicles.
“Looks like US government to me,” Eddie added from the back seat.
“Don’t be stupid.” Stan waved his hand dismissively.
“Stupid?” Eddie laughed. “You show up at my work and throw me into the back of a cop car because you want to go hunt a sea monster and I’m the stupid one? They sure look like secret government guys to me.”
“He’s got a point,” Milo said. “Where the hell else would these guys have come from?” Two of the men started walking towards Stan’s car. One touched his ear, his lips moving.
“Whoever they are, it’s no good,” Stan said. “They’re definitely not from around here. Let’s loop around to the back road.” Stan looked over his shoulder as he shifted the car into reverse.
“What’s the hold up?” Milo asked, not wanting to take his eyes off the men in black suits.
“That,” Eddie pointed through the rear window. “Why isn’t it making any noise?”
A black helicopter hovered silently above the road. A small chain gun hung from under the cockpit. Its collection of small barrels began spinning until they formed one massive, swirling black hole of impending death.
“Go,” Milo shouted. “Just drive!”
A series of small clouds leapt from the hard packed dirt that comprised the road. Something pinged off the car. It could have been rocks. It most likely was bullets. Stan was not inclined to wait around to find out.
The cruiser sped backwards, shooting under the silent helicopter, which pivoted to follow the vehicle. Alarms and lights flashed inside the car’s cabin. Stan ignored them and forced the engine to work harder. Black smoke billowed from under the car’s hood as bullets chewed through the thin metal.
A spiraling pillar of white smoke whooshed past the passenger side window. Hell rose from the road behind Stan’s car. A wall of fire and smoke rained dirt and rocks down.
Stan whipped the steering wheel, sending the cruiser tumbling into a drainage ditch. The vehicle listed to the passenger side, all windows smashed.
“Out,” Stan barked as he pushed a shotgun towards Milo. The brothers pushed open the doors and leapt into the scrubby bushes that rose like thorny waves around them.
“A little help,” Eddie cried from the rear of the car. The windows had been smashed, but a strong steel mesh still covered the windows. “Get me out. Like right now. Right now!”
Stan rushed back to pull open the rear door of his car. A second rocket raced towards the vehicle as Stan grabbed Eddie by the shirt and threw him into a nearby bush.
Milo raced to help his brother, but a thunderous boom and searing wave of heat threw him to the ground.
Everything blinked, dimming
slowly. Then black. Then nothing.
-37-
To say that Lenny was less than pleased to see the government helicopters and boats would be an understatement. The men they contained were even less welcome, but that is what happens when you stick your hand in Uncle Sam’s wallet – eventually one of those bills is going to have a few strings attached to it, and like it or not, those strings would eventually make you a puppet.
“Agent Travis Howard,” the lead suit said with an extended hand. “Please call me Travis.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Travis.” Lenny shook the hand, not because he wanted to, but because it didn’t look like the other would drop it until he did. “Now why don’t you tell me what you’re doing here?”
“I’ve been sent here to oversee your research,” Travis answered. “We’ve been remotely monitoring your progress thus far and…have noticed some, well, I guess you’d call them setbacks.”
“Setbacks?” Lenny scoffed. “Do you even know the first thing about what we are doing here? Can your little mind even begin to grasp the magnitude of what I am on the verge of here?”
Travis took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders. His fingers danced across the lump on the left side of his tailored black jacket. No doubt his gun. He maintained an easygoing effect, but something sad and dark loomed over his shoulder. Lenny thought he may have underestimated this government hack and pushed things a little too far.
“Look, Dr. Borges,” Travis began.
“Lenny is fine,” Lenny interrupted.
“Fine, Lenny,” Travis continued. “Let’s be clear about something here. We know that your theory of interconnected tunnels is a smoke screen for your actual research. With the assistance of our satellites, we also know there is a massive life form in the waters surrounding this island and that is what you are truly interested in studying.”
RIP Tyde Page 9